I hope you have had a powerful encounter with the Lord that you have never wanted to end. If you haven’t had such an occurrence, I pray that you will experience that sometime soon; it’s indescribable.
I had the opportunity to work with a small group of moms to help to plan and to organize the Spectrum High School Baccalaureate for the class of 2023. From the very beginning, it was clear that this was a team effort, and everyone really did work hard as a team from beginning until end. The event turned out seamlessly. As our reflective texts to one another began after the evening ended, it was evident that all of the credit truly goes to God.
After all, He put the team together; we were the team who said yes to this commitment, and we committed because He nudged us. He led us to sign up for tasks that were within our giftings, and we worked well together.
Then, He brought a group of student leaders who also said yes to agreeing to pray, to lead music, and to speak words of encouragement over their classmates. God also nudged the loving adults who spoke truth over the lives of the senior class of 2023 to say yes when they were invited to speak.
Thank you, Lord, for Your goodness in all of these things.
The end result was a perfect night of worship, love, and an overflow of gratitude for all that the Lord is doing in the lives of these young students who have so much in life to embrace. I pray that the message of His love and encouragement would marinate in students’ hearts as they go into the world so that they can shine their lights in the midst of any darkness that they will face and that they would take the advice of one of the speakers and have faith in all circumstances.
The Lord definitely encouraged me through seeing the future leadership in that room, and as I sang the lyrics to "I Never Wanna Leave" in the Cody Carns song “Nothing Else," I found myself really thinking these words.
In that moment, God’s presence was surrounding the room in a powerful way. I knew He was wrapping His love around all of those seniors, their families, friends, teachers–everyone in the room; I wanted to stay in that safe place, and I wanted those seniors to stay in that safe place: “caught up in Your presence. . .”
I never wanted to leave. I really do think I could have stayed in that moment singing those words over and over for the rest of my life.
However, the music eventually ended, the evening was over; it was time to clean up. The thing is, even though the music ended and as the crowd dispersed, God’s presence did not really leave. He did not stay in that room when we all went home, thankfully. We carried Him with us, so even though I had to go home because I could not stay in that church all night, I really did not have to leave God’s presence behind.
I pray that those seniors (and anyone else who needs to understand this) will realize that God did show up for this baccalaureate, and He shows up each and every day. He's always working and performing miracles, and often we don't even realize it. To quote another great song by Maverick City and Elevation Worship: "I've got miracles on miracles, a million little miracles....Count your miracles, one, two, three, four, I can't even count 'em all."
When we acknowledge that events such as baccalaureate do not go so well by accident and that His hand is upon everything that holds excellence, we realize that He plays a role in all of the big things and all of the little things. Then, we realize that we can remain in the loving presence of the Father that was felt in that church on baccalaureate night, and instead of singing “I never wanna leave. . ." we can rejoice while we sing, “I never have to leave.”
